Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

She has been reading Debbie: An Epic, amazing text that it is. "Unhappy, frugal/hope has made me dote and vainly tell/of parts obscene below the waves' crescent/now flecking heaven's screen with stuttered light...". Thinking of how essential the layout of the text is. One might say particularly in this poem, but not, no, it's particularly in any poem.

Well, I did read Jeanette Winterson'sLight Housekeeping, and it was a good read--a lot more satisfying than The Power Book, which--well--which wasn't, but still not quite The Passion, or Sexing the Cherry. Though she did write those, and Written on the Body, and Oranges are not the Only Fruit (which I am currently re-reading), all of which means that it doesn't much matter what she does now. But here's why author websites are not always a good thing: I checked out her site, and with great curiosity clicked on the poetry page, and there, lo, was the most disappointing list of poets and poems I could have imagined! I was surprised to see Robert Bringhurst on the list--but otherwise it was a very conservative, unimaginative list. How can such an innovative writer not be curious about poetry? Where are the experimental poets? Where are the innovative writers? It wasn't so much who was on her list, but who was not!

Okay, so this week she has decided to carry on with the experiment, though mostly this is to be a photo-based blog, not text. There is some reluctance to the immediacy of posting words rather than photos. She agrees to remain open.